I have been wanting to write about the Tea Party impact for years, but have held my peace, thinking they would go away. I was most certainly delusional! I still think they will go away, but not until they have cut the noses off all their faces and our faces to spite the black man in the White House. Yes, for all they profess they want to limit government and cut taxes, I've come to think their primary desire is to get rid of Barack Obama, to besmirch his name and destroy his reputation. It may be the color of his skin, it may be his multi-cultural ancestry, it may be that he is the unfortunate recipient of the same ill-temper that made President Bill Clinton's sexual indiscretion a matter of national security, an anger that grew and was refined during 8 years of a Republican White House. Whatever it is, it is less a threat to the Democratic Party than it is a threat to the very democracy and economy of our country.
Bob Dole, Tip O'Neil, even Newt Gingrich -- those fellows were as loyal to their parties as possible, but they knew how to work with the other side of the aisle to get things done for the best of the American people. Today, things are falling apart. Harry Reid probably remembers how to work across party lines, but he has to have someone to work with and it seems like Mitch McConnell has forgotten the art. He and John Boehner are in tough positions. Boehner, particularly, know he has to stand for re-election soon and he is afraid to anger the Tea Party for fear they will run someone against him to defeat him or, at minimum, weaken his coffers and standing with the electorate. Republicans have to have incredible strength and courage to do what they probably know is the right thing because their political futures are in danger. Democrats, on the other hand, have less to worry about. Sure, it is possible that a tea party candidate will beat a traditional Republican. It happened a few times in 2010. A few Democrats had to run against Tea Party Republicans, but most were successful. Here in Colorado, certainly, Republican in-fighting led to several easy elections for Democrats. In my book, the 2012 elections will demonstrate that the Tea Party is very good for Democrats. A strong Democrat will have no trouble placing the current stock market disaster square on the Tea Party and their insistence on running the country off the cliff of debt ceiling.
As I listen to the news this afternoon, there is some nebulous deal that may be in the works. It certainly bodes little good to the real people in the USA. It probably isn't even good for most of the Tea Partiers, but they won't realize it until their parents or grandparents are forced to choose between eating or keeping a roof over their heads. Even then, they will want to twist it to blame President Obama for their hardships. But, in their hearts of hearts, they will know that their parents are in a terrible financial mess and unable to afford even minimal health care because Congress was locked in partisanship and it caused the parents to lose their investment income before Congress passed the spending cuts that removed the safety nets of Social Security and Medicare. If they are honest with themselves, they will know that they were responsible for their parent's dire circumstances. Worse yet, those currently on Medicare and Social Security will know they brought about their own problems with their determination to bring the country to ruin.
Sadly, they are taking other Americans down the rathole with them. I can only hope that the 2012 election will be the end of this Tea Party heyday and rational Americans can begin to hope again for the bi-partisan governing that works for our country.
Friday, July 29, 2011
A Tale of Two Restaurants
The wildflowers are amazing in Crested Butte! So is some of the food. It is easy to find ho hum, uninspired food and those restaurants are stuffed with tourists. It is also easy to find amazing food with great attention to detail. Some of those restaurants are full of locals and tourists, others are not so fortunate.
We recently made a whirlwind trip to Crested Butte to see the wildflowers. We've taken a couple of guided wildflower hikes in the fall when one has to identify the plant by the leaf. We wanted to see the flowers in all their glory and so we did. We also wanted to enjoy the food scene during Food and Wine Week. We didn't participate in the pricey activities, but we did eat some great food.
Our first evening, we dined at the Old Croatian Restaurant in what is commonly called The Forest Queen. The founders of this new restaurant where so many other restaurants have failed through the years wanted to honor the Slavic history of the community with modern twists on the old dishes. We were a bit worried by a nearly empty restaurant at 7:30pm. We made a reservation only to discover we pretty much had the run of the place. How sad because we found the food to be very good.
One special of the day was goat cheese stuffed mushrooms on baby greens drizzled with a balsamic reduction. These were tasty nibbles! Robert is not a fan of goat cheese, but our fight over the last button was only resolved when I agreed to let him have the last of the balsamic on the greens (and he is not terribly fond of greens either).I admit that by the time I had them drop the shrimp and tomatoes from the pesto pasta, it was an awful lot of the same thing, but the nuts were buttery, the olives added texture and the pesto was excellent. If I had a kitchen there, the leftovers would have made a great lunch.Admittedly, the leafy garnish does nothing to enhance a primarily green dish, but not even the superb and extremely popular restaurants do a great job of garnishing every dish as you will see in a later photo.
Robert is a major salmon fan, so I knew when there was a salmon special, salmon would be his choice for the evening. He is not a loquacious person, so I would take his "Fine" as words of highest praise. I loved the sugar snap peas garnished with cranberries and walnuts on his plate. On another visit, I might have made those my main course, they were so tasty with such a great variety in texture.Django's up the hill is quite a different story. Ever since it opened three years ago, it has been one of the hottest seats in the area. I admit, I had no trouble getting one of the sweetheart tables on my second visit that first year, but my previous visit had been a chilly one out on the patio and not very close to an anemic heater. I couldn't wait to go back. It's been a trick getting a seat at every visit. I've slid off bar stools and gladly taken any seat I could get ever since. This time, we wanted a 6:30pm reservation and gladly settled for a table at 7:45pm. Chris, owner and front manager, has a great software system that reminds him of your previous visits and tells him your favorite table by the way.
Django's is a small plate heaven, though we have seen over the years a trend to what I call small plate entrees, meaning one could order some of the meat dishes as a very light meal. I would love just a small plate entree, if I didn't find so darn many dishes on the menu that I just have to try!
We ordered a cheese plate to start. I am sure I took a picture of the housemade farmer's cheese, Haystack "Snowball" and Manchego with lavosh, polenta crackers, olives and such, but I could not find it on the camera. We also shared a quartino of Quinta da Avaleda Vinho Verde from Portugal. One of the mystery's at Django's and a tiny little criticism here, is the order in which dishes appear. We expected that our two salads would arrive together before any other dishes, but the Mixed Lettuces with fresh blueberries, pistachios and Moody Blue (from Rogue Creamery, blue cheese smoked over fruit wood) came first, rapidly followed by the unadorned Mushroom Croquettes. The Moody Blue cheese gave a chewy quality to the salad. I'm not big on smoky foods, but this smoky cheese played well with the sweet blueberries and lettuces. The pistachios, normally a bit I mention the unadorned mushroom croquettes because of my earlier statement about garnish. Personally, I think these are served in a cute and tiny dish and don't need adornment, but others might disagree. The croquettes are a mix of chanterelle, crimini, shitake and hedgehog mushrooms rolled in bechamel and Pecornio.
This is another place where I might have expected the second salad, thinking they might be separating appetizers from entrees. Nope, we got the first entree, the cocoa butter seared scallops with browned butter brittle, haricot verts and a Meyer lemon confit. It was a delightful contrast in textures with smooth scallops, chewy green beans and crisp, sweet brittle.Here I have to bring up one more tiny complaint. There had been much discussion with the servers and they with the barkeeper about a wine that might stand up to ribs but still not overpower the scallops. The answer was an amazing Chateau du Petit Thouars Touraines Cabernet Franc that is on the menu as a bottle, but which they served in quartino that night. One might think after all the discussion about the appropriate with for both entrees, that the entrees would arrive together and with the Cab Franc, but...
After the scallops, we saw the second salad, wild arugula with pear, pecans and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Neither of us is particularly fond of bitter arugula, but the sweet pear and pecans countered the bitterness beautifully and I'm never going to complain about having a true Parmigiano-Reggiano on my salad (or almost anything else, for that matter). Also, the folks sitting very near us at the next table (tables are very close!) said they had loved both salads and we concur.The sheets of Lavosh with the salads were welcomed to assist in dividing the salads between our plates and were downright tasty as well.
I finally savored my favorite grape, Cabernet Franc, while watching Robert (who was by then professing he couldn't eat another bite) down the Beef Shortribs, with fresh cherry-pepper "BBQ." By the description, he expected a BBQ sauce, but then we're more familiar with wet BBQ.Robert professed the ribs "Great" and I'll take his word for it.
Both of us were stuffed, but I just had to try the Orange Olive Oil Cake. It was light and airy and a perfect choice for two folks who had eaten way too much already.
So what makes a restaurant popular? I have to admit I have little idea. I love Django's for their creativity, but there were the little service slip-ups and, face it, the little cake is washed out on that big white plate and crying out for drizzles of color around it. I am sure the service errors are caused by the small plates that means there are more dishes per table and it is harder to get them all out in a logical order for all the tables. On the other hand, the service at Old Croatian was flawless, friendly and accurate and the food we ordered, while perhaps more pedestrian than the food at Django's, was well executed.
It could be location. There are several new hotel or condo facilities on the mountain crowded with folks looking for food and faced with ho hum bar food or going down the hill to Crested Butte. Django's is a joy to them. Old Croatian is at the far end of the main drag in town, but there is good parking and a pizza joint beyond them seems to do well. Their location has seen maybe seven restaurants in the 15 or so years we've been going to Crested Butte, so perhaps people forget to look there for good food. We talked to one couple at Django's who ate at Old Croatian last winter and while she thought her dish was good, he hated his dish. He won't go back to Old Croatian. Folks in Crested Butte have so many choices, that they don't give a lot of second chances. It can be a bit unforgiving kind of place. In town there are many good to superior restaurants, so Old Croatian has more competition down in town.
While I had a couple little criticisms of Django's, they are minor and mentioned only because the restaurant is so close to perfect. I can no longer imagine going to Crested Butte without eating at Django's. Old Croatian was a good new place with serviceable food and is head and shoulders above some of the other places in town. I only hope it is there next time I am in Crested Butte.
We recently made a whirlwind trip to Crested Butte to see the wildflowers. We've taken a couple of guided wildflower hikes in the fall when one has to identify the plant by the leaf. We wanted to see the flowers in all their glory and so we did. We also wanted to enjoy the food scene during Food and Wine Week. We didn't participate in the pricey activities, but we did eat some great food.
Our first evening, we dined at the Old Croatian Restaurant in what is commonly called The Forest Queen. The founders of this new restaurant where so many other restaurants have failed through the years wanted to honor the Slavic history of the community with modern twists on the old dishes. We were a bit worried by a nearly empty restaurant at 7:30pm. We made a reservation only to discover we pretty much had the run of the place. How sad because we found the food to be very good.
One special of the day was goat cheese stuffed mushrooms on baby greens drizzled with a balsamic reduction. These were tasty nibbles! Robert is not a fan of goat cheese, but our fight over the last button was only resolved when I agreed to let him have the last of the balsamic on the greens (and he is not terribly fond of greens either).I admit that by the time I had them drop the shrimp and tomatoes from the pesto pasta, it was an awful lot of the same thing, but the nuts were buttery, the olives added texture and the pesto was excellent. If I had a kitchen there, the leftovers would have made a great lunch.Admittedly, the leafy garnish does nothing to enhance a primarily green dish, but not even the superb and extremely popular restaurants do a great job of garnishing every dish as you will see in a later photo.
Robert is a major salmon fan, so I knew when there was a salmon special, salmon would be his choice for the evening. He is not a loquacious person, so I would take his "Fine" as words of highest praise. I loved the sugar snap peas garnished with cranberries and walnuts on his plate. On another visit, I might have made those my main course, they were so tasty with such a great variety in texture.Django's up the hill is quite a different story. Ever since it opened three years ago, it has been one of the hottest seats in the area. I admit, I had no trouble getting one of the sweetheart tables on my second visit that first year, but my previous visit had been a chilly one out on the patio and not very close to an anemic heater. I couldn't wait to go back. It's been a trick getting a seat at every visit. I've slid off bar stools and gladly taken any seat I could get ever since. This time, we wanted a 6:30pm reservation and gladly settled for a table at 7:45pm. Chris, owner and front manager, has a great software system that reminds him of your previous visits and tells him your favorite table by the way.
Django's is a small plate heaven, though we have seen over the years a trend to what I call small plate entrees, meaning one could order some of the meat dishes as a very light meal. I would love just a small plate entree, if I didn't find so darn many dishes on the menu that I just have to try!
We ordered a cheese plate to start. I am sure I took a picture of the housemade farmer's cheese, Haystack "Snowball" and Manchego with lavosh, polenta crackers, olives and such, but I could not find it on the camera. We also shared a quartino of Quinta da Avaleda Vinho Verde from Portugal. One of the mystery's at Django's and a tiny little criticism here, is the order in which dishes appear. We expected that our two salads would arrive together before any other dishes, but the Mixed Lettuces with fresh blueberries, pistachios and Moody Blue (from Rogue Creamery, blue cheese smoked over fruit wood) came first, rapidly followed by the unadorned Mushroom Croquettes. The Moody Blue cheese gave a chewy quality to the salad. I'm not big on smoky foods, but this smoky cheese played well with the sweet blueberries and lettuces. The pistachios, normally a bit I mention the unadorned mushroom croquettes because of my earlier statement about garnish. Personally, I think these are served in a cute and tiny dish and don't need adornment, but others might disagree. The croquettes are a mix of chanterelle, crimini, shitake and hedgehog mushrooms rolled in bechamel and Pecornio.
This is another place where I might have expected the second salad, thinking they might be separating appetizers from entrees. Nope, we got the first entree, the cocoa butter seared scallops with browned butter brittle, haricot verts and a Meyer lemon confit. It was a delightful contrast in textures with smooth scallops, chewy green beans and crisp, sweet brittle.Here I have to bring up one more tiny complaint. There had been much discussion with the servers and they with the barkeeper about a wine that might stand up to ribs but still not overpower the scallops. The answer was an amazing Chateau du Petit Thouars Touraines Cabernet Franc that is on the menu as a bottle, but which they served in quartino that night. One might think after all the discussion about the appropriate with for both entrees, that the entrees would arrive together and with the Cab Franc, but...
After the scallops, we saw the second salad, wild arugula with pear, pecans and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Neither of us is particularly fond of bitter arugula, but the sweet pear and pecans countered the bitterness beautifully and I'm never going to complain about having a true Parmigiano-Reggiano on my salad (or almost anything else, for that matter). Also, the folks sitting very near us at the next table (tables are very close!) said they had loved both salads and we concur.The sheets of Lavosh with the salads were welcomed to assist in dividing the salads between our plates and were downright tasty as well.
I finally savored my favorite grape, Cabernet Franc, while watching Robert (who was by then professing he couldn't eat another bite) down the Beef Shortribs, with fresh cherry-pepper "BBQ." By the description, he expected a BBQ sauce, but then we're more familiar with wet BBQ.Robert professed the ribs "Great" and I'll take his word for it.
Both of us were stuffed, but I just had to try the Orange Olive Oil Cake. It was light and airy and a perfect choice for two folks who had eaten way too much already.
So what makes a restaurant popular? I have to admit I have little idea. I love Django's for their creativity, but there were the little service slip-ups and, face it, the little cake is washed out on that big white plate and crying out for drizzles of color around it. I am sure the service errors are caused by the small plates that means there are more dishes per table and it is harder to get them all out in a logical order for all the tables. On the other hand, the service at Old Croatian was flawless, friendly and accurate and the food we ordered, while perhaps more pedestrian than the food at Django's, was well executed.
It could be location. There are several new hotel or condo facilities on the mountain crowded with folks looking for food and faced with ho hum bar food or going down the hill to Crested Butte. Django's is a joy to them. Old Croatian is at the far end of the main drag in town, but there is good parking and a pizza joint beyond them seems to do well. Their location has seen maybe seven restaurants in the 15 or so years we've been going to Crested Butte, so perhaps people forget to look there for good food. We talked to one couple at Django's who ate at Old Croatian last winter and while she thought her dish was good, he hated his dish. He won't go back to Old Croatian. Folks in Crested Butte have so many choices, that they don't give a lot of second chances. It can be a bit unforgiving kind of place. In town there are many good to superior restaurants, so Old Croatian has more competition down in town.
While I had a couple little criticisms of Django's, they are minor and mentioned only because the restaurant is so close to perfect. I can no longer imagine going to Crested Butte without eating at Django's. Old Croatian was a good new place with serviceable food and is head and shoulders above some of the other places in town. I only hope it is there next time I am in Crested Butte.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Now Available in Mobile Format
My blog is now available in a mobile version. I admit I am not quite sure how it happens, but, apparently, if you type in the URL for this blog (mymagnificentobsessions.blogspot.com), it will detect that you are on a mobile device and show the correct version. That's how it works on my SmartPhone browser and on my nook. Firefox on my SmartPhone does not display the mobile version. Please let me know how it works on your device. I've added the qr-code to save typing.
The whole process of creating the mobile version was painless, the qr-code was slightly time consuming and debugging was incredibly time consuming. In the good old days, I would have had to know all the stuff going on behind the scenes, but now I just let it happen the way it happens. Sort of like creating my first web pages in HTML versus letting blogspot do all the work!
I realize I have been neglecting this blog again, but Bible in 90 Days is over, I think I have health insurance lined up (keep your fingers crossed), and I have some things I am anxious to write about. So keep watching, there may be a plethora of blog postings coming in the next days.
The whole process of creating the mobile version was painless, the qr-code was slightly time consuming and debugging was incredibly time consuming. In the good old days, I would have had to know all the stuff going on behind the scenes, but now I just let it happen the way it happens. Sort of like creating my first web pages in HTML versus letting blogspot do all the work!
I realize I have been neglecting this blog again, but Bible in 90 Days is over, I think I have health insurance lined up (keep your fingers crossed), and I have some things I am anxious to write about. So keep watching, there may be a plethora of blog postings coming in the next days.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Income Re-distribution
Maybe it is because I have one of those birthdays coming up, maybe because I am probably facing a no health insurance life soon, maybe because I am who I am... I am keenly concerned, no I am downright worried, about what is or is not happening in Washington, D.C. these days. It started with concern and then anger about health care reform. I've traveled a bit in Europe and have friends there, the kind of close friends with whom you can discuss such a delicate subject as health care. I think their single-payer system works fairly well. I got concerned when the term "single-payer" became a four-letter word, something not to be spoken in "polite" company. I became upset when I got tons of emails from friends and acquaintances about "Obamacare" with tons of misinformation stated as fact. I was downright angry when I realized that health care reform, the kind of meaningful reform that would help people like me and many of my friends, had been completely sidetracked, eviscerated and left by the side of the road, replaced by something that was too watered-down to be of much help to anyone.
Now I watch Washington, D.C. pull a similar number on the budget. The same people who had no trouble increasing the debt limit to fund an unpopular war are the people who have "found Jesus" and are dramatically, tear-jerkingly worried about the nations economic health. They are so worried about the debt that they will destroy the lives of Social Security recipients, force seniors back into a health care marketplace where they cannot get insurance and harm charities by changing the tax system to remove the small advantage taxpayers get by giving to charity. But, will they raise taxes on the wealthiest citizens or on corporations that pay no taxes to support our country? No.
This is income re-distribution, the reverse of the sort of thing Robin Hood practiced. This is the sort of thing that I expect the Democrats to fight against in Congress, the sort of thing my President should be using his bully pulpit to reject. But no one in Washington, D.C. seems concerned. Where are the people who represent me? Where are the people who care about the older citizens, charity and those who do not have 6 figure incomes?
Maybe it is because I am facing a big birthday this week, maybe it is because I worry about having health insurance or maybe, it is because Congress doesn't seem to care about me and my friends.
Now I watch Washington, D.C. pull a similar number on the budget. The same people who had no trouble increasing the debt limit to fund an unpopular war are the people who have "found Jesus" and are dramatically, tear-jerkingly worried about the nations economic health. They are so worried about the debt that they will destroy the lives of Social Security recipients, force seniors back into a health care marketplace where they cannot get insurance and harm charities by changing the tax system to remove the small advantage taxpayers get by giving to charity. But, will they raise taxes on the wealthiest citizens or on corporations that pay no taxes to support our country? No.
This is income re-distribution, the reverse of the sort of thing Robin Hood practiced. This is the sort of thing that I expect the Democrats to fight against in Congress, the sort of thing my President should be using his bully pulpit to reject. But no one in Washington, D.C. seems concerned. Where are the people who represent me? Where are the people who care about the older citizens, charity and those who do not have 6 figure incomes?
Maybe it is because I am facing a big birthday this week, maybe it is because I worry about having health insurance or maybe, it is because Congress doesn't seem to care about me and my friends.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Best of Intentions
I've been neglecting this blog while I ran a program called "Bible in 90 Days." I was drug, kicking and screaming, to the program. The material was a bit more literal in interpretation of the Bible than I am comfortable with and there were bits of lectures and even promotional materials that were inconsistent with my understanding of the Bible, but... I had just followed my husband through two different cancer diagnoses in a single year and I was on the verge of creative burnout when it came to developing and offering creative programs for our adult education program, so I signed on. I hid my weak expectations from myself and from my committee and we started promoting the program. I thought we might have 50 people sign up to read the Bible and maybe 30 would finish.
Much to my amazement, 128 people signed up to read the Bible, cover to cover, 12 pages a day. We recruited small group facilitators to offer eleven small groups during the week. This past Friday, 93 of the 128 were recognized for completing the program. I am still exhausted.
What was interesting about reading the Bible in such a short time frame was how it distorted the realities of the Bible, particularly the long time between the first destruction of Jerusalem and the birth of Jesus. It seemed almost reasonable that Isaiah was predicting Jesus when, in reality there was some 800 years between Isaiah and Jesus and it was far more likely that Isaiah was predicting the restoration of God's people to Jerusalem than a savior nearly 1000 years in the future. Even Malachi's predictions were some 500 years before Jesus' birth which happens just pages later in the Bible.
Reading the Bible straight through also emphasizes inconsistencies. The two versions of creating woman are just pages apart and the two versions are very different. Similarly, Paul's inconsistencies regarding women are glaring when one reads the Bible so quickly. On one page, Paul is praising Phoebe or Prisca or some other female "fellow teacher" and a page later, he is almost screaming that women should be seen and not heard. It almost forces one to chose between understanding that Paul did not write all of Paul's letters or acknowledging that Paul seems almost bi-polar when it comes to the role of women in the church.
Reading the whole Bible brings new meaning to the snippets of the Bible we hear on Sunday morning. When we hear "to every thing there is a season" we can hear in our memories the verses before and after and remember how bleak and depressing the book could feel. When we hear the Easter story, we remember the little inconsistencies between the Gospels.
And yet, while reading the Bible in a short time frame points out inconsistencies and contradictions, it also allowed me to see a God who consistently wants to be in relationship with his people and a people who consistently break the bonds of that relationship. I have often talked about the Old Testament being a story of God's faithfulness to God's unfaithful people, but this trip through the Bible let me see that God's faithfulness to an unfaithful people did not end with Malachi. It didn't even end with God's ultimate effort to restore the bonds -- Jesus death and resurrection. God's people failed to recognize the sacrifice God made, the new and renewed Covenant God offered. Others took the easier route back to the old teachings when they were confronted with persecution.
I found Revelation to be less of the Omega of Alpha and Omega and more of a new Alpha, the beginning of yet another Covenant God offers to God's people. More than ever, I see if the Old Testament is Act One and the New Testament is Act Two, that we are living Act Three right now and, just like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, we wander in our modern wilderness, sometimes faithful, sometimes faithless.
So now you know where I have been for the last six months or so.
Much to my amazement, 128 people signed up to read the Bible, cover to cover, 12 pages a day. We recruited small group facilitators to offer eleven small groups during the week. This past Friday, 93 of the 128 were recognized for completing the program. I am still exhausted.
What was interesting about reading the Bible in such a short time frame was how it distorted the realities of the Bible, particularly the long time between the first destruction of Jerusalem and the birth of Jesus. It seemed almost reasonable that Isaiah was predicting Jesus when, in reality there was some 800 years between Isaiah and Jesus and it was far more likely that Isaiah was predicting the restoration of God's people to Jerusalem than a savior nearly 1000 years in the future. Even Malachi's predictions were some 500 years before Jesus' birth which happens just pages later in the Bible.
Reading the Bible straight through also emphasizes inconsistencies. The two versions of creating woman are just pages apart and the two versions are very different. Similarly, Paul's inconsistencies regarding women are glaring when one reads the Bible so quickly. On one page, Paul is praising Phoebe or Prisca or some other female "fellow teacher" and a page later, he is almost screaming that women should be seen and not heard. It almost forces one to chose between understanding that Paul did not write all of Paul's letters or acknowledging that Paul seems almost bi-polar when it comes to the role of women in the church.
Reading the whole Bible brings new meaning to the snippets of the Bible we hear on Sunday morning. When we hear "to every thing there is a season" we can hear in our memories the verses before and after and remember how bleak and depressing the book could feel. When we hear the Easter story, we remember the little inconsistencies between the Gospels.
And yet, while reading the Bible in a short time frame points out inconsistencies and contradictions, it also allowed me to see a God who consistently wants to be in relationship with his people and a people who consistently break the bonds of that relationship. I have often talked about the Old Testament being a story of God's faithfulness to God's unfaithful people, but this trip through the Bible let me see that God's faithfulness to an unfaithful people did not end with Malachi. It didn't even end with God's ultimate effort to restore the bonds -- Jesus death and resurrection. God's people failed to recognize the sacrifice God made, the new and renewed Covenant God offered. Others took the easier route back to the old teachings when they were confronted with persecution.
I found Revelation to be less of the Omega of Alpha and Omega and more of a new Alpha, the beginning of yet another Covenant God offers to God's people. More than ever, I see if the Old Testament is Act One and the New Testament is Act Two, that we are living Act Three right now and, just like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, we wander in our modern wilderness, sometimes faithful, sometimes faithless.
So now you know where I have been for the last six months or so.
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